Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon

A Royal Life

Elizabeth Donnelly Carney

Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon

A Royal Life

Elizabeth Donnelly Carney

Description

The life of Arsinoë II (c. 316-c.270 BCE), daughter of the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, is characterized by dynastic intrigue. Her marriage to her full brother Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, was the first of the sibling marriages that became a dynastic feature of the Ptolemies. With Ptolemy II, she ended her days in great wealth and power. However, prior to that point she was forced to endure two tumultuous marriages, both of which led her to flee for her life. Arsinoë was the model for the powerful role Ptolemaic women gradually acquired as co-rulers of their empire, and her image continued to play a role in dynastic solidarity for centuries to come. Although Arsinoë was the pivotal figure in the eventual evolution of regnal power for Ptolemaic women--and despite a
considerable body of recent scholarship across many fields relevant to her life--there has been no up-to-date biography in English of her life. Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, in sifting through the available archaeological and literary evidence, offers here an accessible and reasoned portrait. In describing Arsinoë's significant role in the courts of Thrace and Alexandria, Carney weaves discussions of earlier Macedonian royal women, the institution of sibling marriage, and the reasons for its longstanding success in Hellenistic Egypt, ultimately providing an expansive view of this integral Hellenistic figure.

Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon

A Royal Life

Elizabeth Donnelly Carney

Reviews and Awards

"The Hellenistic Age continues to fascinate. One of the latest, and best, books it's stimulated in Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life, by that fine historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney.... Parsing the propaganda, skillfully plugging the gaps in our tattered evidence, as compulsively readable as she's critically sharp, Carney offers us a work of high scholarship that's also a compulsive page-turner."--Peter Green, Times Literary Supplement

"Although Arsinoë II was probably the most influential queen in Hellenistic history, hitherto there has been no full-scale biography of her in English. Elizabeth Carney has filled this gap with this masterful study that firmly places Arsinoe's remarkable life in the context of early Hellenistic Macedon and Ptolemaic Egypt."--Stanley M. Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles

"Elizabeth Carney, the world's leading expert on royal women of the Hellenistic period, presents the first full-length English study of Arsinoe Philadelphus, sister and wife of Egypt's Sun-King, Ptolemy II. In this fascinating biography, Carney pieces together the rich and diverse evidence for a Ptolemaic Queen who takes second place only to the infamous Cleopatra VII."--Waldemar Heckel, University of Calgary

"A page-turner that never needs to compromise its scholarship in order to cater to its readers' pleasure." --Peter M. Green, The Classical Journal